


rendering

by wordflows



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Forgive Me, JohnDave Week, M/M, No one really dies, because virtual reality deaths occur and i figure i should be careful and add it, but i put the warning in anyway, but i'll try to at least get it done this month even if i'm late for a few days, i'm forever late to everything, virtual reality deaths only
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-01 18:00:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15148736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordflows/pseuds/wordflows
Summary: The guild only had four rules about total immersion virtual reality games. They started playing them once a week back at thirteen, and a few changes had to be made from the usual guild rules which were admittedly already fairly lax. Rose pinned the topic with the rules to the guild board and it's easy to remember what rule came about when and why.1. For full-immersion gameplay, roleplay is required.2. use our actual first names or our handles!3. anachronisms are allowed4. have fun!!!!!!(submission for JohnDave week 2018)





	rendering

**Author's Note:**

> "And your goal is to eat my soul because you're a terrible person." A weird terrible person, but John doesn't add that part just yet.
> 
> His best friend is completely unrepentant anyway. "Yes. Also I want to know what the game programs a soul to taste like?"
> 
> (johndave week 2018 day one: urban fantasy)

The guild only had four rules about total immersion virtual reality games. They started playing them once a week back at thirteen, and a few changes had to be made from the usual guild rules which were admittedly already fairly lax. Rose pinned the topic with the rules to the guild board and it's easy to remember what rule came about when and why.  
  
1\. For full-immersion gameplay, roleplay is required.  
2\. use our actual first names or our handles!  
3\. anachronisms are allowed  
4\. have fun!!!!!!  
  
Rose didn't see the point in paying for a virtual reality booth every Friday night if they weren't going to make the most of things, so she insisted on being in character from the very start, although she didn't care what sorts of characters the other three made up. John had tried for exactly one session to keep track of everyone's made up names for the game and failed hard enough that he'd kept breaking the first rule to complain that Dave had chosen the most impossible to pronounce name and then refused to let them use nicknames and Rose's was too long and he kept forgetting Jade's, so he'd insisted they stick to the basics. Dave couldn't handle even five minutes that same first session of not making pop culture references or using slang and had threatened to quit or just ignore the rules if he wasn't allowed to do so. And Jade thought they all needed to stop focusing on the details and just enjoy playing the games.  
  
There are exactly two other customs that carry over from the games they play at other times which aren't really rules that they've set down so much as things they've always done. The first is that in any team based game they won't kill a team member, which none of them had ever discussed but had always adhered to. The second is that they trade off who gets to pick what they're playing. The four of them will agree on a game to play in perfect harmony on occasion, but they have wildly different interests and hobbies outside of music and it's simpler to simply cycle through who gets to choose what.  
  
It's Jade's turn this particular Friday. The usual ritual occurs, starting directly after school lets out. They all congregate at John's car at their own speed like they do most days.   
  
Dave always meets up with him before the car. Like most days Dave's leaning against John's locker when he gets out of his final class. Like most days John laughs and shoves him aside enough to get into it, and then listens to Dave ramble as he sorts through what he needs and doesn't.   
  
As with most Fridays, the topic he sort of sticks to inbetween divergences is what game they're going to play. "So what are the chances we have to play Animal Crossing again?" Dave's comfortable today and not at all distant, his neutral expression the easy sort of casual that John can recognize now but figures most people outside of their circle might not know. His favorite old pair of jeans, a long-sleeved tee that John knows Rose picked out for Dave, his shades...the shirt is darker in color than Dave usually picks for himself and combined with the shades and the black jeans he looks even paler than usual, freckles stark little flecks of color against his skin. John kind of thinks he misses Dave's usual smattering of red in his wardrobe; his best friend's hair is fair enough he looks like he could fade into thin air.  
  
"She doesn't  _always_  pick Animal Crossing." Jade  _often_  picks Animal Crossing but she also likes to pick things almost completely at random. Jade's usually the source of some of the weirder games they play, or just things none of them have ever heard of - not even Dave, who likes to claim he knows all the little known games. Sometimes this works out fantastic and they all have a great time. Sometimes they waste a Friday laughing at how dumb the choice ended up being and trying to break the game in creative new ways. Which is also fantastic, but less in the enjoying a game how it was meant to be way and more in the they've been best friends for years and can do anything and have fun way.  
  
Dave shrugs. "I know. That's why there are actual odds and I want to know them. Like, there's a  _chance_  we might play The Squiddles again. You can never have too many hallucinogenic children's show field trips."  
  
And god, John groans at the suggestion. He barely likes the  _show_. Living through four days of game-time of a children's show had not been his favorite experience ever. ...Multiple times. "You absolutely can? Don't give her ideas, Dave, that one always gives me a headache." John elbows his best friend when Dave just grins and hums the first snatch of the theme song, splitting off to open the driver's side door of his car and unlocking the others with a click of his key. Dave piles into the passenger's seat and immediately hooks his phone into John's car even though John doesn't start it up yet, queuing up the music for the drive. "Please tell me we're listening to at least one recognizable song this time?"  
  
"You're such a baby. Yes, Egbert, I have put some mainstream pop on the playlist just for you." Dave's rolling his eyes. John can't see it behind the shades but he's familiar enough with his best friend to know that this is what's happening right now.  
  
"I don't mind not mainstream stuff! It's just hard to sing along to things I've never heard before. And half the fun of car music is car karaoke. You know this."   
  
"You  _claim_  this," Dave corrects, although they both know the blond always sings along when John or Jade starts up a round of singing at the top of their lungs to whatever he puts on and even though he usually puts in at least  _one_  song they all know. "But I'm not sure it's ever been scientifically proven."  
  
"Things don't have to be scientifically proven to be true, dumbass. Sometimes things are just true." John says this as Rose opens the right-hand back door, sliding in to sit behind Dave. She looks the same sort of ethereal pale as her cousin, but her eyes aren't hidden and her dark makeup sort of accentuates her coloring in a way John is more used to. It's not unusual to see Rose all in dark blacks or purples, so the purple sundress over black tights isn't somehow shocking.  
  
She puts her bag on the floor and leans in. "What is it that we haven't proven which is still true?"  
  
"John's bitching about car karaoke again," Dave says at the same time John says, "Dave's being dumb about the playlist again."  
  
They mutually sigh at one another with no actual enmity and Rose laughs. It's fifteen minutes of Rose recounting her day and Dave interjecting amicably until she kicks his seat before Jade piles into the seat behind John, slamming the door with exuberant good cheer. She's just come from one of her brief club meetings, John thinks, although he can't remember which one. She's at least a brighter addition to the car, wearing yellow shorts and a bright green top and sticking out like a sore thumb against Rose and Dave. "Go go go!" Jade starts to braid her hair once John complies, trying to get it out of her way for once.  
  
No one calls her out on holding them up, and they head to the Skaianet Arcade. John no longer has to think about the drive at all; he's made it every Friday evening for two years now, ever since he got his car at sixteen. It's twenty minutes from their school and Dave manages to fit in a few weird techno mixes but throws in recognizable tracks from various artists that he knows his friends like. Dave is quiet through "Call Me Maybe" but joins in on "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". They pull into the parking lot on the note of "Soak Up The Sun". Even Rose joined in for the last one, although she normally leaves them to it.  
  
When the Arcade first opened John remembers being awed just walking in. They'd known the Arcade would be opening up for weeks and Rose had been the most determined to go, even offering to cover for the first session together. They'd ridden their bikes back then, locked them up out front before pushing open the huge glass doors. The effect is still almost the same as it was back then. Immediately inside is a huge lobby, a sort of cleaner feel to what the entrance to a too-big movie theater entrance might feel like. The walls at the front and to either side of the lobby are all completely glass, and the inside is all white and chrome and clean. There are two dozen consoles lined up to either side of a path to the receptionist's desk, and there are waiting areas to either side of that.   
  
The consoles draw the eye like they were meant to. In contrast to the futuristic style of everything else, they had been styled like old arcade games. Some of them have the shells still for classic games, Galaga and Joust and Street Fighter. And those games  _are_  options. They've done them before, gotten to man the spaceship in Galaga and throw down in Street Fighter, actually there in the virtual world. But there's the shells that change, too, displaying the new games the Arcade has gotten in or new age classics. The screen boots up when a card or chip is scanned and displays all the options. There's multiplayer games, of course, and that's what they always pick from. There are single player options as well, although John hasn't ever bothered with those since he only really comes with his friends. The display is clear and sometimes holographic depending on the settings chosen.  
  
Every title shows a little clip, displays reviews and statistics and options and how long any campaign is expected to take based on parameters filled out past games played or preferences on the account or just the usual timeframe for any group of players. Their group usually plays for two hours tops per session. That's four days in-game time, which is more than enough to get through whatever sort of story they've chosen...usually. There have been a few rare cases of needing to carry over a session from week to week, but the four of them work well enough together that they can usually handle bullshit within the four day limit - sometimes even an hour session of two days in-game is doable.  
  
Sometimes John still feels awed walking in. It's a veritable collection of worlds they get to pick and choose from, and he's going to them with three of his favorite people in the entire world. They head to the same console as always. It's the one with the Galaga shell they'd gone to the first time at thirteen, and they've rarely had to deviate from it since. Sometimes they wait in line for it if there's anyone there. It's tradition and it's not like time spent chatting with his friends is time wasted to John. There are clusters of other people of all ages in the lobby at other consoles, some alone and some in groups like the four of them, but John ignores them for the most part and just focuses on his own friends.  
  
They all crowd around the console as Jade scans her card and starts to browse the options. Dave's leaning against the left hand side of the machine, one arm draped over the top of it, and John peers over Jade's shoulder from right behind her. Rose is a healthy step away from the lot of them, though she's still able to view the screen. Jade's handle is at the top of the screen and there's a list of games she's played and the completion ratings and recommendations based on her past played games and settings. The Squiddles is, unfortunately, right at the top and Dave starts to hum the first few notes of the theme song again before John kicks him in the ankle. Hard.  
  
Dave winces and shifts a little away from John as Jade thankfully navigates further from the cartoon hallucinogenic squids. She taps into new titles and scrolls through faster than John would have, apparently undecided. Rose always plans ahead and knows exactly what to pick; Dave picks lightning fast after glancing at recommendations or based on something he knows one of the others wants to play; John dithers for a while but usually chooses within five minutes. Jade varies. Sometimes she'll stand there for ten minutes or more considering the options and viewing the clips, discussing them with the group and laughing. Sometimes she'll pick immediately, either an old game they've done before or something colorful and vibrant.  
  
And then sometimes she does this: scrolls the options faster than can be seen and slams her finger down after a randomly chosen amount of seconds.  
  
"Bloodlines" isn't really a cheerful title and doesn't have any colorful clips to show, but they watch the clip anyway. There's a city on a full-moon night, the lights from the buildings somehow eerie even though John's seen cityscapes like it a million times. A wide-framed shot and then a zoom in to a roof; a man reading tarot cards that float in mid-air. A shot of the card, Death, and the scene changes. "Enter a world hidden beneath our own," the voice-over intones. It's a woman's voice, low and clear, and the game's theme music starts up gentle behind her. John's fingers twitch as he thinks the chords, wondering what else he could do with them.   
  
"Where your neighbors may not be all they seem." A girl answering the door, her eyes flickering red. An old woman going into her back yard, a black cat twining around her feet. A teenage boy changing into a wolf. A young woman by the ocean, opening her mouth to sing. "What secrets lie in  _your_  blood?"  
  
Then it shifts through story options and teasers in the way most trailers do. The usual fighting for your team sort of thing, some teasers about possible mysteries murder and otherwise, and something about a council and other factions. From what John can tell it seems like a typical spooky world, with ghosts and other paranormal creatures around, and there are several versions of campaigns and quests that can be chosen from or ignored. They tend to play the more open-ended games as a group more often than they don't. He can already picture Rose immediately deciding to topple whatever "The Council" is. Rose tends to be a laser guided missile when it comes to any in-game infrastructure.  
  
Jade brightens all the same. "Oh, ghosts! You can be a ghostbuster, John."  
  
"Please don't encourage him to LARP one of his dumb movies again?" Dave doesn't even sound bothered but John elbows him anyway out of a sense of fairness. It's not hard but Dave dramatically acts like he's mortally wounded anyway.  
  
They all proceed to ignore him, although Rose at least responds: "He's going to anyway. Besides, I think this one looks like a good choice, Jade."  
  
"Bet you ten bucks she picks some kind of eldritch horror build." Dave mutters as they head to the counter.  
  
John shakes his head. "No bet." Because obviously she will. None of them have any rules about what character builds they can do, not matter how many hoops they have to jump through to play with one another. And they tend to jump through a lot, since Rose frequently picks evil characters or character types and everyone else kind of picks all over the place.  
  
The receptionist is idly filing her nails when they come up, but she stops when they're there. Jade hands her the card and explains which game they've picked, and there's the usual spiel: health warnings, how much gameplay they'll get for what they're spending, how much of the game they're expected to be able to finish in the timeframe, what kind of quests and stories are available, the whole enchilada. John mostly tunes it out, although he does pay attention to the warning that the game is PVP heavy. Jade shrugs, as unconcerned as ever: if they die before completion, they just reset to the start and get to play out whatever time they have left on the reboot.   
  
They don't usually die  _that_  much, these days.  
  
"Are you joining one side as a guild?" The receptionist sounds bored but competent and they all shake their heads.   
  
"Separate, maybe with character links. We'll meet up inside." Jade's cheerful as ever, and the receptionist doesn't bother to point out their respective factions might not like that. They're directed to one of the rooms and there are the pods that they've all seen so many times.   
  
Dave hops into one immediately - they're just beds, really, with a lid that'll close later, and the technician who comes in helps them get the headsets on and gives more warnings and some advice on builds they'll probably ignore. John takes the pod between Dave and Jade, while Rose is on Dave's other side, and once he lies down with the visor on he waits for the loading screen. Dozens of little sentences flash by, and as the immersion room darkens and the visor takes over, there's the usual moment of disorientation in the menu screen.  
  
The menu is always a dark room. While John knows he's in the same room as Dave and Rose and Jade, he feels himself standing alone in front of the game screen, and options pop up. What kind of avatar he wants (he always just uses his actual self, with some modifications for species as needed), what kind of class he wants, what kind of backstory...a lot of the details will be filled in on entry but he gets to set all the parameters. Back when they first started he used to try to guess what the others would do and tried to build characters to match what he expected but his friends are kind of ridiculously random.  
  
Not like John can talk. But if they don't have a strategy session beforehand it's just best to do whatever. There's the overlay of his user profile to the side and he can see his friends signing in, but not what they're choosing. They could message him to give him directions but they usually don't -  
  
Huh.  
  
John's just settled on an amateur warlock slash ghost hunter while mentally directing an imaginary Dave to shut up, and a message pops up over the screen.  
  
click yes  
  
In addition to the red text is a request to link character storylines and John rolls his eyes. In some annoying settings trick probably learned from his brother Dave's managed to hide the details of the entire request beyond the "link storylines" thing. This means basically anything could occur, knowing Dave. Maybe it's the usual best friends bullshit like it usually is when he does this, but it could also be something like long lost brothers or a magical familiar or pretty much whatever random idea ran through Dave's brain when he was making his character. John's spent a full session with Dave as his magical talking cat and an entirely different session with Dave as some sort of transforming car robot while Jade was a superhero who rode him into battle.  
  
Sometimes Dave just likes to pick the weirdest character options available in any game. It's usually at least amusing. John thinks at the game in the way he knows sends texts that took forever to get a handle on - he used to send random thought bullshit to the others back before he got a hold on it. Dave found it hilarious, except that he had the same problem and Rose didn't let a single thing slide.  
  
what happens if i do?  
you don't even know what i chose, dude.  
john youre obviously making some kind of fucking ghostbuster  
we both know you cant not do that dont even start with me  
id bet my entire paycheck that youre also doing dumb magician shit  
which is all i need for this to work  
i dont want to wander around the damn game world for a whole day looking for all of you come on  
you're usually the hardest one of us to find, dave.  
thats not true lalonde is a goddamn menace and i resent the implication im as bad as she is about being easily locatable  
you are as bad as she is about it.  
youre a terrible best friend are you linking up or not  
you know you want to  
it meshes with your thing trust me  
you could just tell me what you built, you know?  
less fun  
if you dont click it im picking squiddles next week  
oh my god. fine. you're impossible!!  
yeah yeah  
also were pretty sure jades going to be a werewolf right  
obviously. see you in game, dude.  
  
There's another request off to the side behind Dave's, but Jade doesn't hide the details. She's just requesting family linking and John checks that off on automatic at the same time he accepts Dave's request. There's nothing from Rose but John doesn't expect there to be.  
  
Once he's set, he tells the game to start, and it does.

* * *

 John always notices the smells first. He's not really sure who handles it at Skaianet, but there has to be an entire department dedicated to crafting virtual reality scents. It's not his usual brand of laundry soap, but his game memory informs him it is. There's always this moment before he settles into the character fully. The game memories are implanted and easy to differentiate from who he is. It's just a little like having a guide loaded and accessible, and appropriate pieces of information come up with the right prompts and queries. Right now the game memory is telling him that he's in his bed in his apartment in Seattle, Washington. Which is apparently the center of the paranormal underground for some reason? Dave's going to hate the weather -  
  
Thinking the name "Dave" prompts a few more game memories. It's still loading and integrating but John gets out of bed anyway, looking around and spotting a pair of glasses he promptly shoves on. He could just correct his vision in game but then he's always reaching up to adjust glasses that aren't there - it's way easier not to bother.  _Kitchen_ , his game self prompts, and John stumbles out in his pajamas to find Dave already settled on one of the stools at the kitchen island, looking altogether too pleased with himself.  
  
There's a few minor changes from the best friend John saw outside in the real world. The clothes change is expected, though he's not sure why Dave's in a suit and tie, but the slightly pointed ears and the fangs aren't. "What," John mumbles but doesn't really care, his game self alerting him to the fact he needs coffee. He's not really a coffee guy in the real world but he doesn't mind playing along, just going to make some as Dave proceeds to not help at all.  
  
"Stop thinking about random bullshit and let the game tell you." Dave always adapts to the change fastest, accepting the information without batting an eye and getting on his feet before the others. John tends to take the longest to adjust to the additional information and to let it happen.  
  
He waits until he's made the coffee to lean against the counter and figure it out.  
  
Right.  
  
Because of rule number two, John is John Egbert. He's living in a small loft over his Dad's magic shop. His Dad is missing, currently, because of the whole Council thing - "My  _Dad_?" It's not even John's actual Dad but he feels a sort of indignation and falls out of the game memory which is still valiantly trying to integrate.  
  
Dave makes a go on gesture, indicating John should stop fucking around and actually get into character. "You're lucky Rose ain't here."  
  
"She wouldn't scold me or anything, it's still just started." And Rose doesn't really scold, actually. She's scary focused and determined, sure, but she doesn't really go out of her way to make any of them do anything they don't want to do, although she'll analyze them and throw out advice as needed.  
  
But John shuts up and lets the game system do what it's supposed to.  
  
As he relaxes and lets the information come, the scenery gets a little clearer. He can see something different about Dave's eyes through the shades, and he lets his backstory continue to just kind of happen.  
  
His Dad was on the Council. High Warlock, there's one of every...thing. They're supposed to keep all the paranormal creatures in check, since laws that keep them from being, like, exterminated or whatever by normal people are good and all. The Council isn't always a great thing but John's always had his family set to be based on his actual family, so Dad was a good dude. Like his actual Dad. Very upright and moral and did his best. Apparently shady shit happened and he went missing, only to be replaced by some bald more shady dude.  
  
John's been looking for his Dad for four months now, and he was getting desperate the other night when he summoned -  
  
"A demon, dude? You're stealing all of Rose's moves. ...So you're like my demonic Pokémon?"  
  
Immediately Dave stops looking like something angelic and pulls a face that just makes him look eighteen and disgusted. "I'm your  _partner_."  
  
"Pokémon are partners, that's like the entire definition of what they are." There's no way he's letting the comparison go if it bugs Dave. Bugging Dave is one of John's top five hobbies, second only to actually hanging out with Dave. Mostly.  
  
"Okay, fine, yes, I am your demonic Pokémon. Your soul is your pokeball, I get to eat it when I finish up." Which...okay.  
  
Okay?  
  
Sure. "Why do you always make this weird." It's not even a question. It's just a statement. Why, Strider.  
  
"That's just what demons do. I like the powerset though. Anyway, Jade link up with you or nah?" Dave reaches out and slides John's coffee out from his hands. John doesn't stop him, but just lets Dave take a sip without bothering to put up a protest. He rarely bothers to steal food or whatever from Dave, but if Dave takes it from him...well, good? Dave's too skinny by half and coffee isn't food but at least it's some sort of something. Not that game food or drink is really nourishing, but it's a habit John doesn't have an interest in discouraging.  
  
They're not quite ready set go yet. Dave, when he links up, tends to let John work through the character before they sort of haphazardly do the roleplay thing and go to find the girls. John thinks about it, letting her name prompt him. "Yeah. She's my cousin, a halfbreed. Like, literally."  
  
A snort as Dave takes another sip of John's not that well made coffee. He doesn't seem to notice anything amiss even though John knows it was too bitter and he didn't do it quite right - or maybe Dave's just being nice. Who knows. "So, werewolf was right. You owe me five bucks."  
  
It's their usual sort of banter and John falls into it without missing a single beat. "I so do not. We didn't make a bet about that, I just agreed it would totally be a thing."  
  
"You should give me five bucks anyway, then." Dave says this like it's obvious and John rolls his eyes because no?  
  
"No. So...okay. Rose is obviously probably gonna try to take down the Council - "  
  
"Because it's the biggest governmental thing you can see that could be broken?" There's something wry and resigned in Dave's voice but John knows he doesn't  _actually_  mind Rose's tendency to like breaking the story in ways it isn't meant to be - or ways most people don't. John figures Rose will actually do something more drastic than taking down the Council, because she's more imaginative than him about destruction sometimes. But he's going with the worst thing he can think of for a placeholder.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"She could also try to take down whatever rebellion definitely exists waiting to be sprung." Dave takes his assumptions a step further, and like. Yeah. John can see that happening? So he nods along as Dave speaks.  
  
"We'll just assume she's going to take down both. My goal is to find my Dad, Jade's goal is...uh, probably just to have fun being a werewolf?" Given the fact it's Jade and she rarely gets into the story goals so much as just having fun playing the games. It was sort of refreshing, really.  
  
Dave laughs a little and John knows he agrees. Even Rose doesn't mind that Jade rarely sticks to the plot. Ironically, it's usually Dave who keeps to the storylines the most. "I'm sure the build would want her to care about the werewolves getting a better position on the Council hierarchy but yeah she's probably not gonna bother with that and she'll just help with the Dad issue."  
  
"And your goal is to eat my soul because you're a terrible person." A  _weird_  terrible person, but John doesn't add that part just yet.  
  
His best friend is completely unrepentant anyway. "Yes. Also I want to know what the game programs a soul to taste like?"  
  
"Okay, this is also covered under the terrible person description, Dave. You're setting me up to die so you can see what I taste like??" Which...now John's actually curious about it, too, but he'd never actually kill one of his friends in game to see? The team kill thing is more a policy than a rule, so it's not like Dave  _can't_ , but it's the first time he's set anything up like this that John can remember. John doesn't even actually mind, but he wonders why Dave bothered.  
  
"I'm guessing blueberries." ...Maybe Dave just bothered honestly to see what John's digital soul tastes like, really. That sounds like a Dave-like motivation.  
  
Though blueberries make him think of something else entirely. "Now it just sounds like you're going to eat my eyes." John takes his coffee mug back at this point, deciding that while he usually doesn't stop Dave thieving maybe Dave currently deserves it.  
  
"Which I'm not. I am strictly a soul-eating demon, I think." There's one of Dave's little half-grins along with the statement and John wishes that his best friend being happy about something stupid didn't make him that much more likely to go along with the stupidity.  
  
But oh well. "I hate you. Anyway, I know where Jade lives. Think we should start there?"  
  
Dave shakes his head in the negative before John even finishes speaking, then starts to number things off on his fingers. "Nah. Still day one. Recon and hanging out on day one, trying to meet up day two, story progression day three, finale day four. You know the usual schedule."  
  
"I do, which is why I suggested we find Jade. To, like, hang out?" John raises his eyebrows, because usually that's Dave's first instinct as well: find the girls, do whatever.  
  
This time, though, Dave just shrugs. "She's absolutely gonna be runnin' around like a dog right now and having a blast. Don't you want to test  _your_ powers? Let's go interrogate some ghosts, dude."  
  
Which. You know. Sounds kind of fun? So.

* * *

 When they leave the apartment, they're fully in character. For John and Dave this means mostly staying to their backstories but also joking around like normal and occasionally referencing real life even though they maybe shouldn't. Dave's better at staying in character than John is but just tends to want to be casual about it. Rose is best at it, and Jade tends to laugh a lot while she plays pretend but she's good at remembering the storylines. The three of them - John, Dave, and Jade - agreed to kind of start to try more because Rose tries so hard, so.   
  
Well.  
  
It goes how it goes.  
  
"A'ight," Dave adjusts his shades as they wander through the magic shop downstairs. "We can't count on any other bloodlines to help you out, man, and I'm not so sure about other warlocks. Maybe if we recognized any, but..."  
  
John nods, understanding. Sometimes they'll see groups of people they know go into other rooms at the same time, or singles. But those groups might be playing entirely different games. There are definitely other Player Characters around, but they might be from anywhere in the world, at any other Skaianet Arcade location. Maybe even some really rich people who have their own setups. There are some people outside their little guild who they see often enough to trust to maybe help out even if they're on opposing sides...and then some people who would go out of the way to do the opposite. It all depends. "No idea who's around. Yeah. Okay, so...we need to gather information. You said ghosts?"  
  
"Yep. Figure the Council probably missed exorcising a few spirits. That's how this kinda thing goes...there has to be an info leak somewhere. Where was your Dad at last?" Dave's loaded memories don't cover everything, John knows, and he thinks about it.  
  
"Downtown. He was following up on something, but he wouldn't tell me what. I've been down there a lot but - " Another shrug, this time a little helpless.  
  
Dave just nods, casual. "Not with me you haven't been. Let's go."  
  
Somehow it makes John feel like they're going to get somewhere ( _it's the first day of the game, of course they will_ ) and even though he shouldn't grin at a dangerous soul-sucking demon, that's exactly what John does.

* * *

They wander around the downtown area for most of the day. John's the warlock, he's supposed to be able to sense spirits and he's...pretty sure he does? But he's never been out without his Dad before ( _isn't sure how the controls work exactly_ ) and it's slow going. He manages to find a possessed rat, some kind of shadow sewer monster, and a vampire who goes running when Dave tips his shades down at him before they come close to finding a ghost of any sort.  
  
"Why'd he run?" John asks, because what the fuck. "Are your eyes like magical or something?"  
  
"Kind of," Dave says and then just doesn't explain, because he's an asshole.   
  
But John remembers the rules of the contract. Don't lie to me, keep me safe, the contract ends when I get my Dad back. He remembers, suddenly, the summoning last night. He'd been so careful about drawing the diagram on the floor in ink, he'd cut his palm and pronounced every word syllable by syllable, and then there'd been Dave standing in the middle of the circle, eyes like banked fires and pure red.  
  
John had given him the shades then ( _on Dave's thirteenth birthday_ ) because there was no real way to explain  _those_  eyes.  
  
"They didn't make me want to run." Mostly. He'd kind of wanted to run when he'd summoned a demon because he'd summoned a demon and the cost was his soul when the contract was up, and Dave had been too calm and distant during the negotiations until the end when he'd  _smiled_  in a weirdly feral way, those red eyes staring at John from over the tops of his shades as he'd said  _Contract accepted_  and brought John's hand to his mouth to lick away some of the blood.  
  
( _which is suddenly a very real sensation John definitely felt and will now remember forever and what the fuck Dave, why is he always so weird??_ )  
  
"It'd be kind of counterproductive to make the dude I want to devour run away." Which is...maybe the weirdest thing Dave has ever said to him ( _this week_ ) but okay. Whatever.  
  
That's when John feels it. It's like a cold bucket of water being poured over his head and he stops cold where they were walking through the alley.  
  
Dave freezes beside him, one too-hot hand hovering near John's arm. "Egbert?"  
  
"I think...there." He gestures, still uncertain, but yes. There's a bit of a darker shadow, maybe, and then in the shadow a pale wisp of light. John takes one hesitant step forward, then another. Then again, until he's right in front of it, crouched down. Dave's hovering directly beside him, John knows, but he focuses in on the ghost instead. The shade.  
  
For once the too-talkative demon doesn't interrupt. He just goes still and lets John think at the shade, trying to listen and understand. This spirit saw something, or knows something. It's not quite a ghost, but more the remnant of one that someone tried to erase.  
  
It held on, John thinks, because it had something to say. And he's the first person who has been able to listen.  
  
He realizes that he's speaking aloud only halfway through, telling Dave what he's hearing. Dave's silent as the grave and doesn't interrupt and John thinks that's strange but maybe not as strange as it could be. "He was a warlock, too. This is what's left of his magic...I think he might have been the one who called Dad here. There were...a lot of people. All of them warlocks and witches...? He saw someone get away, but most of them didn't..."  
  
Dave's quiet still until he's sure John has nothing more to say. Nudges his arm. "Got a direction on our lead?"  
  
"Um...sort of. A shop? It's hard to understand. We can go look around, I think I have the general direction of where it might be."  
  
And for the first time since he's started practicing, someone besides his Dad just nods at John and accepts his word as fact. The truth is John isn't really a very good warlock. Magic doesn't come easily to him, even though he adores it. Dave's genuinely the biggest thing he's ever done, and Dave was called up on desperation and a final last hope and John hadn't really in his heart expected it to work.  
  
Thankfully it had. His usually meager magical reserves have been bolstered by the powerhouse he can feel beside him, the too-bright magical energy almost blinding. John had wondered how they could wander around without being caught by anyone up to no good, but Dave had assured him John was the only one who could feel his energy, that it had to do with the contract.  
  
The sense gets weaker as they go, though, and John has to admit he's tapped out for the day. Dave shrugs when he says it, says they'll go home, and John has the surreal experience of bickering with a demon about what to get for dinner. Dave insists he only eats souls and John points out he'd had coffee earlier and for some reason can't shake the single minded determination to get food into Dave Strider ( _Dave's always too skinny and John's always too worried_ ).  
  
Dave ends up agreeing to pizza and eats two slices of double cheese under John's watchful gaze. When he catches John looking he raises his eyebrows and John just grins before going back to his own food. He falls asleep against Dave's shoulder as they sit on the sofa watching The Road to El Dorado and thinks as he drifts off that Dave isn't supposed to be as warm as he is. Must be a demon thing.

* * *

Despite the fact that John's the one who has a vague sense of the direction of where they're going it's Dave who spots the shop first, a soft exhalation of surprise before he gestures. "Think we might wanna try there after all." And maybe it's a coincidence, but John has the same idea when he sees the sign: Roxy's.  
  
There's always a chance it isn't the ( _player_ ) girl they both know somehow (there's a brief moment of confusion before the game decides John's heard of her from Dad, and he figures Dave just has some sort of knowledge of the basic layout of the paranormal world) but there's a good chance it is with that shade of pink. John changes directions and heads over to the shop, opening the door and hearing the little bell above it ring as he comes in and holds the door for Dave.  
  
There's no pause as Dave follows in behind John ( _he used to pause more when they first met as kids_ ).  
  
It's not a magic shop. Not like John and his Dad have, with too many books and ingredients and then fake magic trick stuff for normal humans. It's a joke magic shop to anyone from the upper world and for anyone from the magical world...well, they sell a bit of everything. This shop, however, only has books and a few magical items, and mostly seems to be centered on fortune telling. If John didn't have any sense of magic at all he'd assume it was the fake kind, but there's very real magical energy lingering in the air. It's heavy when he brings it into his lungs, and he coughs in surprise before Dave's hand soothes down his back and he can breathe again.  
  
Dave's hand pulls away before John can say anything, but the warmth remains like a brand and seems to get between John and the too-heavy air. It's a relief, so maybe there isn't anything to say.  
  
Now that he can breathe again he can look around a little better, and John realizes the shop is done up all in blacks and shades of purple ( _Rose?_ ) and pink. There's someone in the back room that he can feel, but John just goes up to the counter and hits the little service bell.  
  
"The bell above the door already said we're here, dude," Dave says, but John just shrugs and waits.  
  
When the person comes out front from behind the curtains John ( _does_ ) doesn't recognize her. ( _Roxy and Dirk and Jake and Jane are another guild they play with sometimes, and they're serious about staying IC even moreso than Rose. Sometimes Roxy breaks character to chat or Jake does it on accident, but Dirk and Jane never do. John tries not to make them do it on accident, even though sometimes he'd like to say hi to his cousins normally._ ) It's a girl about their age, she looks too-similar to ( _Rose_ ) Dave and they stare at one another for a moment before she smiles, somehow vibrant and cheery even in the gloom of the shop.  
  
There's something off about the smile, though, like it's not quite genuine. She's worried, John thinks.  
  
"You must be John Egbert," Roxy - it has to be Roxy - says. It's not a shock. Most people know the former High Warlock's kid on sight.  
  
Most magical people, anyway.  
  
Except John isn't sure that's why she knows. "You were with my Dad the other night," he says and he can  _feel_  Dave groan as well as hear it.  
  
"Egbert, for fuck's sake. You were supposed to let me be  _sneaky_. This is why you got nowhere without me - " And John can just tell that Dave's about to break into a long-winded ramble but thankfully he's cut off.  
  
By Roxy. "Yep." She says it easy as pie, and actually John didn't expect that. So. "There was a meeting - well, a bunch of the upper warlocks and witches were called together. Warehouse, only it wasn't one  _obviously_  it just looks like one to normals. But it went...bad. I was waiting for you."  
  
On  _waiting for you_  Dave shifts closer again, hand burning on John's arm even through his cardigan. "Listen - "  
  
"Dave, wait. That doesn't have to mean something  _bad_." Probably. It's hard not to trust Roxy ( _she looks too much like Dave and Rose_ ).  
  
The blonde girl just gestures them into the back of her shop. Dave looks reluctant, but John follows immediately, and since Dave won't let go of his arm that means Dave goes, too. There's a cozy little room in the back, an old couch and some armchairs. John takes a seat in one of the armchairs and Dave perches on the arm of it, hovering protectively. Roxy takes a seat on the couch.  
  
"Your Dad called the meeting, actually. There's...well, you know the Council elections are coming up? For the open seat. The one for the angels." Roxy says it like it's common knowledge and John realizes it is, for him. Them. Dave makes a face at "angels" but Dave's a demon so whatever that's to be expected. "There's something he was worried about for it, but he didn't manage to tell us what. We were just discussing some of the weirder things that have been happening in our world lately before the meeting was attacked..."  
  
"By who? Is Dad - is Dad okay?" It's like a hole in the pit of his stomach, the thought that Dad might  _not_  be okay. The entire point of summoning a demon was to make sure his Dad would be okay and get through this and maybe he hadn't thought it through but that had mattered more than  _anything_  and John had been at the end of his rope.  
  
( _his stories tend to center on his family and friends, and his Dad is frequently a factor. John supposes it doesn't say anything bad about him, really._ )  
  
"I don't know," Roxy admits, and it's like the world is ending. She keeps speaking, though. "I  _think_  so. I know they didn't all die, just...I don't know what happened to them. Right after that meeting High Warlock Scratch was appointed, and no one who went missing has been, you know...mentioned since. People are looking, but quietly, and they have a habit of disappearing. I'm not actually sure how you haven't, except I think your Dad must have put some sort of protection on you."  
  
"He did," Dave confirms, making both magicians look his way. "I ate it."  
  
"Why the fuck would you do that?? Do we have to be worried about - " Whatever. They're supposed to be worried about? John's a little confused, but  _hey_?  
  
"You don't need it with me around, I'm doin' it for you. And I needed  _something_. Pizza and coffee ain't the kind of sustenance that cuts it for me, dude." Dave's drawl is casual and Roxy's eyes flick back and forth, then widen. Her eyes linger on Dave's ears, his mouth.  
  
She opens her mouth to ask, but John cuts her off. "So...why were you waiting for me?"  
  
Roxy looks like she'd like to pursue her unasked question, but instead her shoulders slump. "Well...I was told to. My friend - Jane - she was at the meeting with me. And then...when everything happened she got me out first, you know? And she said that the High Warlock didn't have his staff with him. If we could just get it, maybe..."  
  
"Maybe?" John's not sure where she's going for a second, and then: "You think it can get them back from...whatever you haven't explained?"  
  
"The whole place just disappeared." Roxy's voice is flat and somehow sad. "Warehouse there one minute, gone the next. Abracadabra. It had to be a large-scale spell, but for some reason there's almost  _nothing_  left behind. The staff might be able to track it. And it would have been able to stop it, but..."  
  
"Dad didn't have it for some reason. But then why not come to our place?" He's definitely still lost.  
  
It's Dave who responds. "Think about it. Protection. It's keepin' people from knowing where you live, dude, or are, or whatever. They can't  _find_  your place unless you take them there or invite them in or tell them. Friend or foe alike. I only know how to get there because you called me."  
  
Roxy nods, and she doesn't look happy about Dave knowing that. "And no one's been able to do tracking magic on you for  _ages_. Even the werewolves weren't having any luck."  
  
"You went to them for help? Even if they could I don't see why they  _would_." Dave sounds skeptical and that's...fair. None of the different sorts of creatures and beings really get along. It's sort of annoying to John personally since he knows several other sorts of people and doesn't see the point in not getting along because blah blah blah werewolves and vampires and magicians blah blah blah for all of time blah. "And some of them were getting close before I took over. I heard some chatter."  
  
Which...okay.  
  
Okay? Cool to know he might be dead or something without Dave. Disappeared? Because of a staff.  
  
John knows about the staff. Each Council seat comes with an artifact, the artifact is what helps keep an entire section of the magical underworld in check. Dad has the staff. He doesn't carry it around often, or not in its natural form. He's not sure what all the other chairs have. The different magical beings can get touchy about sharing that kind of information.  
  
"So...we need to find the staff." John guesses, since that sounds like the Thing he's learning here.  
  
"You don't know where it is?" And Roxy sounds...not thrilled because okay yeah apparently she needs that to save her best friend, and John thinks about how he'd feel if his best friend were about to die and it's not...great. ( _it's confusing because his best friend is right there playing demon but no, that's not how it is in the game_ )  
  
"Uh...no. I didn't even know it wasn't on Dad. I think...I think we did learn a lot, though. For now, we'd better get back home. Um..." John pauses. "This feels like a really dumb note to leave on, but yeah, that's pretty much all I know? Is everything you said."  
  
"And we didn't know it until just now," Dave confirms, shrugging. "...John has someone we might look up tomorrow, but yeah."  
  
For a minute John can't think who Dave means, but then he remembers Jade.  
  
Right! Jade will maybe know what to do.

* * *

They call her first thing the next day. Jade has absolutely no idea what to do. She's thrilled when John calls her, though, makes him give her his address because she "forgot it because of a spell, I guess?" and when they open the front door of the shop for her Jade throws herself at John and hugs him. He has just enough time to notice her hair is thicker and wilder than normal (which says a  _lot_ ) before he's in a bone-crushing embrace.  
  
Then she throws herself at Dave and hugs him, too, apparently out of a sense of fairness even though she's never met him before ( _in the game_ ). "Thanks for helping my cousin!! He's kind of dumb and gets into trouble a lot but I love him and like him alive, so."  
  
So...  
  
The soul eating thing will eventually be awkward but John makes the executive decision to just not tell Jade about that part as he ushers his friends upstairs. John sits on the sofa and Dave joins him immediately, thigh pressed up against John's and too close but it's Dave so John just lets it happen. Jade sprawls on the armchair, legs over one side, and tips her head back over the other arm to look at them. "Soooo...what do we know??"  
  
Dave's the one to fill her in, explaining what very little they know about Roxy and her story and John's Dad. Jade listens and makes a face at the end. "The artifacts...you know, the Werewolf one is missing, too!" Which...isn't good.  
  
John's thrown into a jarring sense of confusion when Dave says, "Okay, cool, sounds like a typical anime set up we got goin' on here. Where the fuck is Rose, do you know?"  
  
He has to press his fingers to his temples and turns to glare at Dave while Jade laughs. "Dude. Rule one!" It's always a bit of a headache to have one set of memories surge in front of the other, and he'd finally quieted himself down.  
  
Dave shrugs, unrepentant. "Five minute break. Jade, you seen her anywhere? It's literally day three."  
  
"Sometimes we don't see her at all," Jade points out with perfect good cheer. The headaches of memories back and forth never bother her, for some reason. Dave seems able to flip in and out without a problem, too. It's just Rose and John who get the surge of "ow". "I haven't even  _heard_  about anyone who sounds like her, but Jake's a Werewolf too. And you said Roxy mentioned Jane, so Dirk's probably around too."  
  
"They were gonna play tonight too, yeah. Didn't know we'd pick the same one." Dave confirms and John elbows him.   
  
" _Anyway_..." Since clearly none of them were going to produce Rose out of thin air. John puts up both index fingers, mouths the word "one" and tries to let the game take over again. "...why would the artifacts be disappearing? I mean...if it's two out of the seats, we can maybe assume it's like, a thing for most of them right?"  
  
"I think the rule is one is a one off, two is a coincidence, and three is a pattern. But eh, let's go with "something something artifacts something"." Which isn't very scientific of Dave, John thinks. "If they were disappearing it'd make the more combative actions of all the groups recently make sense. So...let's assume someone is collecting them. What all do you two know about your respective artifacts?"  
  
Jade and John have to actually think about it.  
  
"Not a lot," Jade admits. "Grandpa has it, and it's a necklace. I mean, he  _used_  to have it. He's had Jake and I on the hunt for it ever since it disappeared, but he isn't sure how it got away. He always had it on him. It's the only piece of silver any of us can touch. It can make any of us go down immediately if the holder wants, but...it's special, you know? The High Werewolf hardly ever uses it. It's just important, and lets him do more. I don't know even all the things it can do, but it's...strong."  
  
"I don't know much either. Dad usually kept it in different forms, because it was kind of a pain to take around otherwise. It helped him do really complex spells, with almost no preparation time, and he didn't ever seem to run out of magical energy. But...I think I do remember something." John's frowning, still a little thrown out of character. He has to pause to let the game tell him what's nagging at the back of his mind. "...I remember a story. Don't you, Jade? About how the Council  _got_  the artifacts. Or...how the Council was formed?"  
  
Jade screws up her face in thought, feet kicking as she does, before her eyes widen and she suddenly moves to sit upright. "I  _do_!" She must not have let the game persona fully exist until now, John though. "It was formed to keep something out, or in. Not just to keep control of all the factions. And I think...the artifacts are keys! I don't remember all the details, because Grandpa always said it was a silly story, but..."  
  
"Let's just assume it's true because we know fuck all else and that sounds plausible enough," Dave suggested. "Do you know where whatever the thing they lock up would be?"  
  
John and Jade both shrug. It's John who says: "Somewhere none of them would ever be all at the same time? So...probably not the High Council itself."  
  
"Otherwise it'd be easier to just take them while they were meeting," Jade agrees.  
  
"The Low Council," Dave says, after a moment. "There's only ever one High Council member there at a time. Right?"  
  
"So that's where we have to go?" John's already on his feet.  
  
Dave yanks him back down. "We could stand to have a plan. Or the staff."  
  
"We don't even know if we have it or not. Dad could have had it stolen! He used to just keep it in..." John pauses, and this time when he gets up Dave lets him go. Follows him to the room John hasn't gone into since four months ago when his father disappeared.  
  
When John freezes up in front of the door, there's the familiar demonic warmth against his side that lets him reach out to open the door.  
  
It's just a room, really. A bed, a desk, a closet. A hat stand. The sort of familiar scenery that isn't surprising. There's a few magical relics lying around but nothing out of the ordinary.  
  
There's Dad's pipe on his desk, and John takes a halting step inside the room before he goes to pick it up. Dave's at the doorway, he realizes, and he looks back over his shoulder as he feels the magical energy locked in the pipe's shape fluctuate as he holds it.  
  
The demon isn't even in the doorway, standing a little back with his arms crossed. "Barriers," he explains.  
  
"You're not going to just eat them?" He'd eaten the supposed protections on John already, after all.  
  
There's a small beat of silence before Dave shakes his head. "It's your Dad's room."  
  
It's the only explanation he gives and maybe the only one he needs to offer. Jade peers around his shoulder and lights up at the sight of the pipe. "Great! So we have...one thing. So, what now?"  
  
Rose is really the tactical one of the bunch, when it comes down to it. Dave does his best but he tends to agree to whatever John and Jade say. Jade's okay if she has information but none of the three of them do. John...well, John does what John does.  
  
Between the three of them they decide to head to the Low Council the next day. Jade takes John's bed and John ends up spending the night on the couch again. He doesn't think to ask if Dave actually sleeps or not.

* * *

In the morning John makes them all pancakes and forces Dave to eat at least one. Jade has seven. John has four and they all talk and laugh and don't break character even though Rose isn't there. Jade borrows one of John's shirts and some of his shorts to change into and Dave's still wearing the damn suit and John throws on a cardigan over his shirt-and-jeans combo. He puts the pipe in his pocket and all three of them exchange looks.  
  
"Battle ready," Jade decides, cheerful as she knots her hair on top of her head in a messy semblance of a bun. "We should take a selfie! Dave, don't you want to take a selfie?"  
  
"I don't have a phone," he grouses, but Dave stands between Jade and John as they take a picture on Jade's phone anyway. After that they head to the Low Council for lack of any better ideas.  
  
The High Council is at the top of the Columbia Center, through a portal. The Low Council is beneath a Subway downtown.  
  
Like, the sandwich shop. They have to go in through the men's bathroom and say a stupid phrase in the last stall (all three of them squeezed in at once means John's elbow is in Dave's gut and Jade's hair is in John's mouth) and they basically have no plan except "well, why not, it's the fourth day so fuck everything".  
  
This is unfortunately a plan John has carried out with these same people so many times before ( _hasn't he?_ ).  
  
The High Council is one of every member of each "kind". Werewolf, Vampire, Warlock, Angel, Fairy, Ghost...there's several. The Low Council has more of each, representatives from every family and clan, and those heads are the ones who vote for people to fill the High Council. At every Low Council meeting one member of the High Council presides, circulating in some order John has never bothered to remember.  
  
There isn't a seat for demons, he thinks, as he walks through the dark tunnels. John calls up a fairy light to lead the way, but it's still a place full of shadows.  
  
When they reach the doors to the inner chamber, three times as tall as a man, there is a girl waiting there for them. John hasn't seen anyone else, and he knows that isn't normal, but he also feels the ticking of a story inside of him and pays it no mind.  
  
She turns, and the girl is ( _Rose_ ) lovely in a horrifying way. Her skin is dark and made of shadow, her eyes a black void, and her lips are perfectly painted and curve up into the sweetest smile. She holds her hand out towards them, and John thinks that like Dave's touch burns hot hers would burn cold.  
  
"Brother dearest," she says ( _she and Dave are cousins, as far as John knows, but they're close enough to be siblings and look too much alike anyway_ ) and Dave keeps walking after John and Jade freeze and takes the offered hand. There's steam. "You took much too long to come."  
  
"I didn't know I was supposed to be," and Dave looks cautious in a way John isn't used to. "What are you even doing here, Rose?"  
  
"I'll spare you the details, I think. Suffice it to say someone has been very... _unwise_. I agree with the goals, perhaps, in the general...but not the specific. So I think I shall have to get in the way. Are you going to help me?" Her voice is so calm and gentle and absolutely horrifying like nails on a chalkboard.  
  
Dave shrugs and drops her hand. "Dunno. I'm under contract."  
  
"Who called up a siren?" Rose seems genuinely curious even though it's maybe obvious as John edges up behind Dave. Dave holds his arm out and presses John back, but he doesn't seem inclined to attack Rose so maybe he thinks it's safe as long as John's out of reach. Jade comes up on Dave's other side and he doesn't hold her back like he does John but she goes no further anyway.  
  
"I don't mind if he helps, but I don't know what's going on." Which...yeah. John gets Rose is here to fuck up someone's shit and is secure in the knowledge she isn't trying to fuck up  _their_  shit and doesn't mind helping her do it to whoever.  
  
But he'd kind of like an explanation? Maybe?  
  
And also his Dad.  
  
Like, just to start with.  
  
Rose laughs. "Lord English. The Demon seat doesn't exist, you know, and he wants one. A goal that I don't mind, as I said, except I rather think he shouldn't sit on it...and anyway, I don't think much of the Council."  
  
So she probably would have fucked them up anyway even without a demon doing something she didn't like. Right. "So...he's been kidnapping mages and taking artifacts?"  
  
"No, no. That's all High Warlock Scratch. Lord English can't enter this realm without being called. None of us can, usually." Rose smiles again, and the expression is easy and familiar on her face.  
  
"Yeah, I kinda wanted to ask about that. How the fuck are you even here?" Dave doesn't seem angry still and John and Jade take their cues from him ( _can't work up to being mad or suspicious about Rose even when she's being scary about something because it's Rose and she's never directed her ire at them_ ).  
  
"I summoned myself," Rose says like that makes any sense whatsoever. And it probably does, because Rose is good at breaking games and rules and people she doesn't like. "So, you'll assist?"  
  
"Just point us at whoever you want us to take down," John confirms, shrugging.  
  
Rose smiles again, too sweet, and skips over to touch the door. It shatters into shards of ice like glass, and Dave makes an annoyed sound before the pieces coming towards him and John and Jade all melt away into water and then steam. " _Contract_ ," he says, firmly.  
  
There's a laugh from the girl who called him brother and then they all go inside.

* * *

Inside is a single man in a green-and-white tuxedo. There are words, of course, but honestly John isn't entirely sure about the whole plan beyond...  
  
Okay, like. This guy talks  _way_  too much. But the basic plan, which John gets from several paragraphs of rambling as Rose speaks to the guy (why are there so many words, make the words stop) is that the artifacts have to be used to open the door to let in Lord English who was maybe pissed because his sister (his sister???) was getting a seat and he wasn't.  
  
Apparently.  
  
John thinks this is mostly bullshit that could have been resolved by not doing all of This, but okay. They eventually reach the point which is relevant to him and not just Scratch and Rose trying to out passive-aggressive (or aggressive-aggressive) one another.  
  
"...Of course, we do need the final artifact, Mr. Egbert, if you would so kindly hand it over..."  
  
"What did you do to my Dad??" Because like, fuck the rest of the plot? That's the single plotline John actually cares about and he would like that resolved at some point before Dave inevitably eats his soul or whatever the fuck Dave plans to do with that.  
  
High Warlock Scratch looks faintly surprised. "That's not exactly relevant at the moment, is it? A finished storyline, if you would."  
  
"Unfinish it!" And maybe he should care more about the whole everything else but like.  
  
No?  
  
No. Nope.  
  
Scratch simply raises the white orb he's holding, and John feels a  _pulse_  of energy from inside it and he sees, suddenly, so many people inside. They're reaching out, and if he just reaches back -  
  
There's lava on his arm and Dave's holding him back, fingers tight. "John, it's a trick. That's how you get caught in it." John's pocket is hot, too, the pipe protesting the magic right in front of him.  
  
John isn't the warlock he has to be to win this, he realizes. He's sort of a fraud and he's only stumbled here because it seemed like a good idea at the time and he wanted his Dad and Jade and Dave were with him. He doesn't know the spells he needs to know for this, not without the reference books handy and a steady hand on his shoulder telling him about the spells. His Dad's voice and guidance. He just isn't ready for this, even though he's here and has to be.  
  
There's a shimmer of magic in front of him like a veil, though, and Roxy at least is a better witch than John is a warlock and there's a boy at her side who looks like Jade ( _Jake_ ) and they look so determined and wow, it's a final battle, then? ( _all the PCs, but Dirk isn't there - must have died already maybe? Jane's trapped -_ )  
  
"Getting caught in it might not be a bad idea," Rose muses. "We'll have to take him out, you know, and it will be safer in there."  
  
"He's already started a bunch of spells. He barely even  _needs_  the staff, the guy's almost got English out here as is - not  _you_ ," Dave snaps at Jake when he looks confused, and John's pretty sure Dave's as stressed as it's possible to be.  
  
At least he thinks that until he makes the mistake of looking at the orb again and the pretty magic shield Roxy threw up does nothing to stop his breath drawing in and John sliding into a different reality.  
  
It's just him and Scratch. The Warlock smiles and John thinks ( _waste of a life, Dave'll be mad about the soul thing maybe_ ) he let his Dad down and when the bolt of magic comes at him he screws his eyes shut even as he tries to call up a shield. He was always bad at shields.  
  
The magic never hits and when he opens his eyes he can see something burning through Dave. It's a shadow of nothing by the time it reaches the other side of his chest, but there's a hole the size of a fist through where Dave's heart should be. John can see Scratch through the hole. ( _he's going to have nightmares about this what the FUCK_ )  
  
" _Dave_  - " And the hole is bleeding and Dave is wobbling and John flings out his arms to catch him and he has no idea what he's supposed to do here without Dave because he barely knew what to do here with Dave. Where are Jade and Rose?  
  
The pipe is in Scratch's hands. "A little late for that, I think. Well...it doesn't matter, I suppose."  
  
Suddenly it's Dave and John in the dark abyss that Scratch had called him into, and John doesn't know what to do. "Dave, holy fucking  _shit_ , that has to hurt why didn't you just let me - "  
  
"Contract," Dave grits out, and John remembers  _keep me safe_  and he's never hated ( _game parameters_ ) himself so much as right this second. He's not giving beneath Dave's weight because for all he's two inches taller Dave's always been too light and John's always been sturdy. He just holds Dave up and worries and doesn't know what to do until the shadows form a circle of light and one slender shadowed hand reaches through and John reaches out to grip Rose's fingers and feels his hand start to burn (freeze) as she pulls them through the portal and Dave protests.  
  
On the other side she primly drops his hand but it's still blistering even as Dave swears and cover it and John snaps, "Don't, you don't have any energy left for that you asshole!" and Dave doesn't try to heal it because John's glaring at him like he'll kill him.  
  
"I think that's about enough of that," Rose says with a decisive coldness that would startle John or get his attention normally but he's still locked on the hole in Dave's chest. They're maybe losing this but that matters less than Dave at this exact second, and Jade's dropping down beside them with a worried little noise even as her nails grow longer and her eyes flash an unnatural electric green. "I couldn't gather Roxy from the realm he stuffed her in - getting everyone will be a chore. We need to do away with him..."  
  
"I'll do it," Dave says, and he's lurching to his feet and John sort of hates him why is Dave this way?  
  
Rose simply presses a hand on his shoulder and he blows back ten feet to collapse and why is  _Rose_  this way???? "I think not," she says. "I'll handle it. The injured should remain seated." And then she walks towards Scratch, ice forming where her footsteps land, and John doesn't manage to look back and see what happens because he's running over to check that Dave didn't die (he didn't, but he's looking where Rose went and he's frantic and  _Goddamnit Rose, you weren't -_.  
  
There's something like a cold explosion and when he looks back neither Scratch or Rose is there any longer, but a cluster of confused warlocks and witches are. There's something like a clock in the background and they're still not in the chamber, John realizes, but a weird white area like there's sunshine (it's night, he thinks) and buildings he can't quite make out and a door that seems to stretch all the way into the not-sky. In the cluster of people is a man in a hat and suit and a girl with ( _familiar_ ) blue eyes.  
  
His eyes lock onto the man, and Dave seems to be standing up and breathing somehow and Jade's helping him to his feet so John lets himself run over. "Dad!" And it isn't his Dad, John knows, but he's gotten lost enough in the story that it feels like it. And the avatar is  _exactly_  his father. He's not seen him for four months ( _since this morning when he was grabbing breakfast, saying he'd be back later tonight with his friends like every Friday, for dinner_ ) and John missed his father  _so much_. He'd been so worried and scared and hadn't known what to do and he'd wanted him safe and sound enough to stake his soul on it.  
  
His soul.  
  
John's safe in his Dad's arms and his Dad is saying something but John turns and sees Dave standing there and thinks  _oh_. Reckless decisions had always been a mainstay of his and he usually just figured it would work out. He thought that this whole time ( _didn't think about it, just trusted his best friend was having a good time and however the story ended that mattered more_ ) and somehow he had forgotten that at the end of everything Dave was going to kill him.  
  
His ( _game_ ) mind knows that Dad can maybe exorcise this demon, break the deal. But John gave his word and Dave's still bleeding, standing there with his hands in the pockets of his messed up suit jacket, a gaping wound through his chest. He's just watching John, shades firmly in place, and John pulls away from his father -  
  
Dad pulls him back, a firm hand on his arm. "John." And John knows his Dad knows, because his Dad's the best warlock he's ever known, and Dad wouldn't have had to call up a demon to save John. He could save John now, maybe, except the contract was sealed in blood and more than that John's  _word_.  
  
"Dad," He looks up at his father, always too tall and serious, and John thinks this is hard ( _as hard as if it were real_ ), too hard to ask him to do at eighteen. But there's still more to be done, and there's only one way to do it even if Dad has more magic than John could ever dream of having. "Sorry, there's still...I love you."  
  
It's what he says instead of "goodbye" and Jade pulls back on Dad's arm when he tries to reach for John again and Jake's at his other side looking too-serious for once and ( _hope we didn't ruin their game session_ ) John starts walking.  
  
He doesn't stop walking until he's standing directly in front of Dave, looking up at Dave who has two inches on him even now ( _his posture is always even worse near John as he leans in, always has been_ ).  
  
"Hey," John says, and he hears Jade trying to argue with his Dad and he thinks about how Rose burned up to give them a chance and how Dave tried but she wouldn't let him. It makes him think of something, but he can't think what.  
  
"Hey," the demon sealed with John's blood and magic replies. When John reaches up to remove the shades Dave doesn't stop him, and instead of the banked fires that were usually in his eyes up until this point there's nothing but endless dark - and somewhere in that void a burning sun.  
  
John swallows once. Twice. "So...the contract's up."  
  
"Yeah," and that drawl is so familiar and comforting even while John's heart rate speeds up because he's  _going to die_. You don't live without a soul. "You have to have been the one meal who was worst with terms. The conditions you gave me, Egbert, what did you pick?"  
  
He can't help it. John grins. "Don't lie to me, keep me safe, and the contract's done when we get my dad back. What would you have suggested?"  
  
" _I'm_  a loophole abusing bastard and I would have chosen different words. Until my father was safe from all harm, maybe. You could argue a lot of particulars with that. You've always been too trusting." And there's a brief confused moment at "always" where the game recedes and John just sees the same kid who falls asleep next to him whenever they drag him to football games, Dave's head heavy on his shoulder, but the story pushes it back.  
  
"Yeah, maybe. But he has Jade, and Jake, and Roxy'll help out too once she breaks through..." John shrugs. "And I promised. I mean...that's what a contract is. I promised, right?" ( _Dave made him promise click yes_) He smiles because somehow he thinks he's known Dave long enough to recognize when Dave's angry at himself and upset and needs a smile on someone else's face.  
  
( _they've been friends over half their lives_ )  
  
"It'll be okay, Dave." John reaches out, carefully takes the demon's hand, and it's just as hot to the touch as always and it still feels weird somewhere in the back of his head ( _because Dave's hands are always cold_ ). "Blueberries, right?"  
  
It's a weak joke. Dave snorts but shifts closer, letting his fingers lace with John's loosely. "Remember what I am?"  
  
And that's a weird question. "A demon," John says instead of the immediate internal reaction of  _my best friend_  because that's maybe stupid.  
  
"Yeah. Right. Which kind, genius?" It feels like a pop quiz in the patient tone Dave uses.  
  
John knows the answer, but can't figure out why Dave is making him take pop quizzes. "Siren. Rose said you're a Siren."  
  
"Yeah. I need to borrow something from you for a bit, okay?" The same quiet tone that Dave used ( _when John fell out of a tree when they were nine and broke his arm, and Dave jumped down and talked to him calmly and told him not to look, don't look John, while Jade ran to get his Dad_ ) when he was making that contract with John the first night, standing in a circle of ink and salt.  
  
"You can't borrow a soul, dude. You just take it. I'm giving it to you, so - " John's cut off by the world ending.  
  
Or changing.  
  
He's not sure what happens, actually, except Dave leans in and there are dry lips pressed against John's ( _what the fuck_ ) and Dave Strider is kissing John Egbert and  _what the fuck_  both sets of memories agree on completely stunned silence and John can't even decide if he's going to kiss back - is he supposed to kiss back? does he  _want_  to kiss back? - before Dave pulls back and he looks a little less pale somehow.  
  
The wound in his chest isn't a thing John can see through any longer. There's new pale flesh there, like an old scar but somehow new, and John feels weak enough in the knees he has to sit down hard and for a confused moment he's not sure if it was the kiss or something else but he realizes he's suddenly very tired and he can't feel the magic that's been at his fingertips this entire time. He's staring up at Dave and Dave just gives that devastating little smile that's too genuine to handle that he only gives out sometimes and John's not sure if he's in character or out of it and he just says, "Dave," because he can't think of a single fucking thing to say besides that and he'd like to say something or do something but Dave just took all his energy for some reason and he can barely make out that single word.  
  
Dave walks over towards the door. The ticking of the clock in the background is getting somehow faster and louder, and the door is starting to open. John only manages to find enough energy to start to try to get to his feet as Dave touches the opening door and things dissolve into a haze of fire.  
  
When the flames dissipate, all of them are in the Lower Council chamber and there isn't any sign of Scratch or the demons or the artifacts. It's like it maybe never happened at all, and John's Dad is hugging him and Jade's speaking too fast in his ear and it is, supposedly, a victory.  
  
( _Rose and Dave have always been really, really bad about not throwing their lives away. It's the worst part about playing games with them._ )

* * *

When John logs out he's still thinking  _what the fuck_. The credits rolled, the scene dimmed, and suddenly he's looking at the inside of his visor and wondering if that's actually what Dave's lips feel like and what the fuck is he supposed to do with this, exactly? The tops of the pods open on automatic and the technician comes in to make sure they all get unhooked right and John feels a little shaky and Jade looks delighted and Dave...  
  
Dave looks completely fucking normal, chatting with Rose like nothing at all happened. He stretches his arms above his head and the dumb gothy black shirt rides up over his waist and he doesn't look like he just kissed his best friend instead of killing him like he'd gone into the damn game saying he was going to do.  
  
He's staring. John's staring. And Dave just laughs at something Rose says like it's an ordinary day and helps her off the pod bed she was on by just lowering his arms to lift her up and set her down gently and then he looks back over at John and asks, "Hey, what's your Dad makin' for dinner anyway?"  
  
Occasionally John thinks that maybe strangling Dave would be, like, a cool course of action. But he's flustered enough to just check his phone and answer and they don't talk about it at all on the ride home or at dinner or even when Dave asks if he's going to sleep over or not, casual as anything. Jade keeps almost saying things but Rose keeps stopping her and Dave doesn't even seem to notice as far as John can tell. They don't talk about the game or the kiss or any of the other shit when Dave changes into pajamas and takes the side of John's bed nearest the wall. They talk about anything and everything else until Dave falls asleep first for once in some kind of miracle (John's too wired to even begin considering to sleep) and John ends his Friday (early Saturday) staring at his best friend sleeping next to him and wondering  _what the fuck_  on repeat, unsure of how to progress from that thought onto whatever the next one is.


End file.
